Ohio University will outsource its e-mail service later this quarter to Microsoft if a contract is secured.
We're trying to modernize as fast as we can
said Brice Bible, chief information officer, at the Graduate Student Senate meeting last week.
Microsoft and Google began offering free e-mail systems to universities about a year ago. OU decided to go with Microsoft because the company is expected to agree not to mine student data, whereas Google will not agree to this, Bible said.
OU pays for maintenance and licensing fees and anti-spam software with its current Oak e-mail, but using Microsoft's system will be free and anti-spam software is included.
OU accounts receive 5.3 million e-mails each day, and about 5 million of these are spam, Bible said.
The new e-mail system will be called Catmail the choice of students who participated in an online survey.
Catmail will be able to hold 10 gigabytes of e-mail, as opposed to 100 megabytes in Oak e-mail. It will also allow for larger attachments and a larger amount of drive storage.
The Microsoft system would also include more searching and viewing capabilities and a calendar that could be shared with other users.
A transition to the new e-mail service will begin when the contract is signed, which is expected to occur this quarter or this summer. Students and alumni will receive an e-mail notifying them of the date when they will switch from Oak e-mail to Catmail. They will then receive another e-mail notifying them that their Oak account is no longer active. They will still be able to access the account, but all new e-mails will go to the Microsoft account.
I think it'll go pretty smoothly Bible said.
One concern with the new system is privacy, Bible said. The originally proposed contract allows OU to look at student e-mails, but Bible said he would like to see this ability removed.
With Oak e-mail, OU can look at student e-mails if a legal reason exists, but the originally proposed contract with Microsoft left access to student e-mails wide open for both OU and Microsoft, said Sean O'Malley, communications manager for the Office of Information Technology. OU would like the contract to allow OU and Microsoft to look at e-mails only if they have a compelling reason, he said.
With the new service, e-mail addresses will stay the same.
This article has been changed from its original version. Faculty and staff are not being moved to the new system, so only students and alumni will receive an e-mail notifying them of the date when they will switch from Oak e-mail to Catmail. We regret the error.
1
News
Jackie Best
